Monday, March 29, 2010

When Twitter was first introduced in my district I saw it as a little more than a time waste and another Facebook to keep up with. However, this Christmas I got a HTC Hero powered by Google Android I downloaded the Twitter App Twitdroid and gave twitter a try. I subscribed to some people already avid tweeters and I started learning a plethora if information in my field. I was amazed by the quality results and interesting articles that the tweets led me to here are just a few.

Symbols that will help you navigate the Twitterverse:@: When someone mentions another user they attach the @
#: When reference a particular subject include a # mark. Popular #'s #education, #edtech, #edchat,

Popular Twitter Apps for Desktop and Mobile Devices:TweetDeck: for the Desktop works on all platforms PC, Mac, Linux and iPhone.
Echofon: Works with Mac, iPhone and Firefox extension.
Twitdroid: Twitter for Android mobile devices

Philip Schlechty has probably made a great deal of money and even created a buzz word in education "Student Engagement" with a theory I deciphered my first couple of years as classroom teacher. I realized that if students were tricked into having fun while they learned it made it much easier on everyone involved. I taught seventh graders and I rarely had one come up to me after class and tell me what a great lesson I had taught, but I did have students tell me "that class went by so fast." This supported the old adage "Time flys when your are having fun." That's when I knew I had succeeded in making a lesson fun/engaging.

Friday, March 26, 2010

The University of South Florida has an incredible database of online and audio books for the incredible price of FREE. There is a plethora of classic novels and children's books and stories. Here is the link to the University South of Florida website however if you have an iPod or iTunes installed on your computer they have an incredible storefront in iTunes U.

There are also free books available on the Kindle, but did you know that you do not have to have a Kindle to read ebooks? You can get the Kindle software on your Mac, Pc, or iPhone/iPod Touch. You might also want to try Stanza book reader from the iTunes App store where you can access the Gutenberg database.

Out of the 1000's of Audio books from USF here are a few of my favorites.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Video Game that Teaches History:Florida Virtual School is pioneering online education with the development of a series of complete digital game-based courses to teach American History. Go check out the game... Conspiracy Code Programmers worked at Electronic Arts before branching off to form 360ed.

Twitter Goes to School, Telling Stories Through Digital Threads:Incredible presentation on piecing together history using twitter during the Iranian ElectionsHere is the link to a prior presentation. Chris Bigenho's blog.

Web 2.0 Applications: Alternatives to the Same, Old PowerPoint.Not only did Randy Rodgers talk about Web 2.0 Apps he used them in his presentation. Incredible repository of Web 2.0 Apps and projects. Go check them out on his blog.

Evidence-based Instructional Design:All their online instructions is based on these four "Brilliant Concepts"

Build on a Concrete Concept...There is no way I can learn what you want me to learn if I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Reflective Observation...If I can carry on a conversation with others about what you want me to know it helps all of us understand it better.

If I can take what it is you want me to know from the classroom and convert it into ideas, plans, and actions for the "real-world,” I've got a pretty good handle on it.

The best way I can show you that I learned something is to use it in a creative way. (This was my favorite point of the session)

Student-developed Video Projects-- You Can Too:

Tommy Beardon from ESC Region 14 showed project after project that students developed to teach other students across the United States. My personal favorite was the the Rattle Snake presentation. Here are the links he gave us to review..

Thursday, March 11, 2010

ManyCam allows your webcam to come alive. It allows you to add effects to your video stream, use your cam with more that one program at a time, add text to your video feed, and also allows green screen effect with downloadable backgrounds. You students will love the avatars. It is available for both Windows and Mac OS's

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

This web based tool allows you to upload pictures and resize them to the optimal size to post on your website, blog or document. You can resize them, shrink the file size and keep the shape, or do very simple edits.Go Try it...Web Resizer

Monday, March 8, 2010

Learningscience.org is a great resource for K-12 Science teachers for interactive Science lessons and learning tools. Learingscience is a repository for tested website and organized by grade level and cirruculum standard.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

John Couch the VP of Applc Education visited Birdville ISD on Tuesday and enlightened us on the incredible resource of iTunes U. Hundreds of accredited universities such as Oxford, Stanford, and Yale have uploaded professor's lectures so you can take the courses for free over the Internet. Unfortunately they do not come with a degree, but the courses are free. Maybe you are interested in Quantum Physics or World War II... There is a class for that. Take courses from around the world from your computer, iPod, iTouch, or iPhone. "Learning Anything, Anytime, Anywhere." Turn off the TV and turn on iTunes U.

Another interesting site he showed us was the Khan Academy a great place for instructional videos from an expert in the field.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Several months ago I shared Flockdraw a simple collaboration tool that enabled teachers or students to share content across the classrooms. One of Flockdraw's strength was its simplicity, so you might be ready to move on to a full featured collaboration tool. I am going to share two more that are powerful collaboration tools for the classroom.Dabbleboard & CoSketch are Web 2.0 collaboration sites, unlike Flockdraw you can import your own images to modify, manipulate and share.

Educational Examples:

Upload a battle map and have students draw troop movements

Upload a picture and separate into quadrants for a "History Alive" type of analysis

Challenge another class down the hall or across the globe to a game of Vocabulary "Pictionary"

Tag Galaxy is a fun and interactive way to find tagged images on the internet. It takes you through the "solar system" of the web until you reach your final destination a world full of pictures. Go try it... TagGalaxy